Cook, resto-bar bouncer to be charged for mauling to death American in Dumaguete

DUMAGUETE CITY, Negros Oriental, Philippines—Police said on Monday they would file charges against the cook and bouncer of a resto-bar here who have been identified as among those who mauled and killed an American who was teaching photojournalism in a university here.

The charges would be based on a 10-minute footage from a close-circuit television camera that showed Glen Eltagundi and a certain Boyet, cook and bouncer of  the ZanZibar Restaurant, as among those who beat up Philippe Prins on Dec. 26, outside the resto-bar, an officer of the Dumaguete City Police Office said.

The foreigner died in the hospital two days later due to severe head trauma.

Aside from Eltagundi and Boyet, police have identified two other suspects, who are minors.

Inspector Blas Alpeche, Dumaguete City Police Office investigation chief, said they were still determining the motive of the mauling.

They were also getting the addresses of the suspects so they could ask the court for a warrant of arrest upon the filing of charges in court, he added.

Prins, an American Army Scout veteran who was teaching journalism at the Foundation University, was seen leaving the resto-bar around 4 a.m. of Dec. 26 when at least four people ganged up on him, smashed his head with beer bottles and beat him up.

A 10-minute CCTV footage submitted by the resto-bar to the Dumaguete police showed a foreigner was talking to a group of men after leaving the bar.

A few minutes after, a man hit the foreigner’s head with a liquor bottle and then three others took turns in beating Prins up until he stopped moving.

The attackers then left him.

For seven minutes, the foreigner was left lying on the ground. Nobody dared to come near him until an ambulance arrived and brought him to the nearest hospital.

Prins was in a coma in the hospital for two days due to  severe hemorrhage in the head until he died on Dec. 28. His remains were cremated and would be brought back to the United States.

The killing prompted the Dumaguete City government to investigate the resto-bar to check if it had proper permits to operate.

Dumaguete City Administrator William Ablong said a notice of closure would be issued against the resto-bar after they found out that it didn’t have a mayor’s permit and a building permit.
(With a report from Judy Flores-Partlow, Inquirer Visayas).  SFM